North Bergen, NJ – International Longshoremen’s Association President Harold J. Daggett is bringing dockworkers and other maritime union leaders from around the world together to combat the threat of automation on November 5, 2025.
Since the ILA’s Quadrennial Convention more than two years ago, ILA President Daggett has been calling for all maritime unions to join in solidarity to address the threat of automation and put the brakes on Ocean Carriers from further destroying dockworker and maritime jobs worldwide.
The ILA leader envisions all dockworker and maritime unions mirroring the success his union achieved last year when it successfully negotiated a landmark six-year Master Contract with United States Maritime Alliance that included iron-clad language to keep automation off the docks on Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
To achieve this success world-wide, ILA President Daggett is looking to establish a Global Alliance among dockworker and maritime unions that will challenge any further erosion of waterfront jobs through automation.
“All maritime unions are facing the threat of automation robbing their ran-and-file members of their livelihoods and destroying their unions,” said ILA President Harold J. Daggett, the leader of his 85,000-member longshore union. “All maritime unions meeting in Lisbon, Portugal on November 5 and 6 will present a powerful response to this automation threat in the strongest possible way and to do so unified.”
The ILA organized a Lisbon Summitt on November 5, 2025 with the International Dockworkers’ Council, a trade union federation made up of dockworkers’ organizations from around the world. Currently, the IDC has more than 120,000 affiliated dockworkers world-wide.
The ILA and IDC intend to formulate a global response to the threat of automation.
